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The Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GABC) contributes to the

common objective of the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to well below 2°C.

The Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GABC) is an initiative launched at COP21, as part of the Lima Paris Action Agenda. It aims to mobilise all stakeholders, including member states and non-state actors from the Buildings and Construction sector to scale up climate actions in the sector. The GABC focuses on the achievement of the low-carbon and energy transition through fostering the development of appropriate policies for sustainable, energy efficient buildings, which allows a concrete value-chain transformation of the sector.

Specifically, the GABC aims at supporting and accelerating the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It is committed to putting the buildings and construction sector on the below 2 °C path. The Alliance thus facilitates the implementation of the Paris Agreement for the buildings and construction sector in terms of energy efficiency gains, growth of renewable energy, GHG emissions reduction, and increasing the share of eco-friendly buildings, whether new or renovated. Today, the GABC gathers 24 countries and 72 non-state organisations (sub-national, non-governmental organisations and private sector) from all over the world. It intends to increase the pace and scale of actions through communication, collaboration and implementation.

Communicate: Raising awareness and engagements in order to make visible the magnitude of the opportunities and impacts in the buildings and construction sector, define sectoral climate goals and promote transparency and information exchange.

Collaborate: Further enabling actions on public policies and market transformations to achieve existing climate commitments, through implementing partnerships, sharing technology and know-how, and improving deal-flow and facilitate access to efficient financing and funding.

Buildings and construction together account for 36% of global final energy use and 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions when upstream power generation is included. Progress towards sustainable buildings and construction is advancing, but improvements are still not keeping up with a growing buildings sector and rising demand for energy services. The energy intensity per square meter (m2) of the global buildings sector needs to improve on average by 30% by 2030 (compared to 2015) to be on track to meet global climate ambitions set forth in the Paris Agreement.